Paul Latham, Live Nation’s Chief Operating Officer for Europe, has moved to explain organisers’ decision to pull the plug on Bruce Springsteen‘s Hard Rock Calling headline performance in Hyde Park last weekend just as The Boss – and his special guest Sir Paul McCartney – were about to offer their thanks to the crowd.
Earlier this year, complaints from local residents over noise and disruption put the future of big-time concerts being held in Hyde Park in doubt and, although a tentative agreement was reached, the threat of harsher sanctions remained should the new proposals be breached.
And in an email to The Wall Street Journal, Latham has claimed the affluent residents of Park Lane and Mayfair ‘wield inordinate power’ over their council, meaning the nature of Springsteen’s 3-hour-plus set could have caused problems for promoters in the future.
“For the last 12 months we have been fighting the good fight with the Local Authority and their licensing teams to retain the ability to stage concerts in Hyde Park,” he wrote.
“The current licenses were granted on very strict noise restrictions, traffic plans and curfews with the ‘sword of Damocles’ hanging over any future events if we broke any of the conditions.”
“Suffice to say the residents of Park Lane and Mayfair may not be numerous but they wield inordinate power over the Gogs and Magogs of City Hall and Parliament.”
Soon after the gig, E Street Band member Steve Van Zandt took to Twitter to register his own disgust at the decision, asking ‘when England had become a police state‘.